Pottery

I have been practicing pottery for 2+ years at various studios, currently I work at Mudstone Studio in Pawtuket, RI. My number-one goal is to create the perfect coffee mug, a pursuit that I am sure will take my whole life. I am drawn to the idea of creating an object that is intimately connected to its use, and adds joy to the experience of use. I think the objects we surround ourselves with should be special, beautiful, functional, and natural. I derive huge inspiration from the production philosophy of the Chawan.

July 24, 2025

I am currently doing work in the intermidiate guided open studio at The Steel Yard in Providence, RI. For now I have decided to focus on form and hone those related skills before moving on to textural work (which I am also interested in). As such, my pieces in this class will be all raw clay body on the outside, with a simple glaze lining on the inside. I pre-plan the dimensions of pieces and attempt to throw and trim sets which are as alike as possible. The outsides of all trimmed pots are burnished with a metal spoon, which gives a delightful smooth texture to the greenware...we will see how this comes through in the final peices. The instructor, Fred, opened my eyes to the fact that the clay body used for these classes is a bit ugly when left unglazed. Perhaps I will attempt a subtle oxide wash just to give the pieces a little bit of contrast as opposed to the flat yellow-beige of the raw glaze-fired clay. A couple of the residents in ceramics recommended that I simply use a clay body that I think is beautiful if I want the raw clay to be beautiful, and I think this is good advice. Perhaps I should do some tests and find a clay to stick to before going too much further.